The present invention relates to point-to-point or point-to-multipoint wireless communications systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods for removal of a media object from a group communication between wireless telecommunication devices that a target user is unable to handle, and notification is given to that target user of the media object removal.
In wireless telecommunication devices, such as cellular phones, PDAs, mini-laptops, and advanced pagers, the devices typically communicate over long distances by bridging telephone calls through existing cellular telephone networks and passing data packets across the network. These wireless devices can have limited or significant data processing and computing capability, and can accordingly send and receive software programs, in addition to voice, across the telephone network.
There exists a wireless telecommunication service that provides a quick one-to-one or one-to-many communication that is generically referred to as “Push-To-Talk” (PTT) capability. The specific PTT group of recipient devices for the communicating wireless device is commonly set up by the carrier and the PTT communications are mediated by one or more group communication control devices on the wireless communication network. The member devices of the communication group are known to the group communication control devices.
A PTT communication connection is typically initiated by a single button-push on the wireless device that activates a half-duplex link between the speaker and each member device of the group and once the button is released, the device can receive incoming PTT transmissions. Existing PTT systems have advantages over traditional cellular systems because they have faster call setup times, e.g., setup times ideally in the range of 1 second as opposed to cellular voice channels that can take more than 5 seconds to establish. In some arrangements, the PTT speaker will have the “floor” where no other group member can speak while the speaker is speaking. Once the speaker releases the PTT button, any other individual member of the group can engage their PTT button and they will have the floor. Generally speaking, the PTT system uses standard voice-over internet protocol (VoIP) technologies. Voice information is sent in digital form over IP-based data networks. In PTT scenarios, instead of using the standard cellular infrastructure a call is formed by combining separate point-to-point connections between each IP endpoint at a server. Initiating the PTT system generates a call to the target device. The call originator's voice can be sent through the carrier's network to the target handset.
In existing PTT systems, member devices typically only communicate voice data between the devices during a communication session. It is difficult to include other data or media in a group communication because of the size of the data and the device resources necessary to handle non-voice data, and the unknown capability of the target devices to handle the media. A mobile device that therefore desires to send non-voice data, such as media objects, must typically do so through specific data traffic channels established between the device and a wireless communication network, and not the channels supporting group communications, such as PTT voice calls.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a system and method for a mobile device to attempt to send any media object in a group communication to other members of a communication group, such as during a PTT communication session, without concern that a target device may be unable to handle the media object. It is thus to such a system and method that the present invention is primarily directed.